DAC960 Trivia Jumper JPl is a 6-pin header that provides a connection
for three status LEDs. Pin 1 is to the left end of the board. In each case
the odd-numbered pin is the +5V source. An external series resistor
is not required for the LEDs.

Indicator _____ Meaning if ON

Pin

Name

Meaning

1-2

SCSI Activity

One or two SCSI channels xmitting or recving data.

3-4

Write Pending

DAC960 xmitting / recving data to/from host system.

5-6

DAC960 Cache has data more current than on HDs.

DAC960 LED Error Flashes

When any DAC960 controller is powered up, the 960 CPU performs
a sequence of tests on its hardware. Failure in any of these tests is indicated
by an error-code by flashing the Write Pending LED on the DAC960
controller. It is also accompanied by an appropriate BIOS error message
on the system. The memory parity error (irrecoverable), during the
operation of the card, is also indicated by the same LED.

NVSRAM Function Each NV SRAM has a self–contained lithium energy source and
control circuitry which constantly monitors VCC for
an out–of–tolerance condition. When such a condition occurs, the lithium
energy source is automatically switched on and write protection is unconditionally
enabled to prevent data corruption.

Cable Parts The mini C68 for the Channel edgecard connectors is the
Molex 71660i,
part# 15-92-3068, called a half pitch Centronics, or a VESA Media Connector.
Suprise! AMP makes a similar part (mini-C68) AMP Part 1-557089-2
Any cable with a .025 pitch, 28 to 30 AWG will work with either connector.

My Take on it:
I am starting to have neurons fire. Actually, Allen provided
the push. Al went and slit the conductors for better flexibility (in pairs).
Could you slit the flat cable up towards the controller
and get the very flexible cable bundle of the IBM original? The black sheathing
is available from Jameco for about $1 a foot. Well worth it, IMHO. (Start
the slit with an X-Acto and use the reverse of the blade to finish parting
the conductors???)
The sheathing is Techflex Cable Sleave, looks to be the
3/8" size. Sold in a 25' spool. Part #162157,
Product # CCPT2X per spool $14.95 Techflex is HERE What kind of signal degredation might occur? Each signal
pair hopefully cancels it's noise out. If the Brandt manuever can be done
from the top drive connector to theadapter, it might be a close match to
the real thing

HD LED Doesn't
Work>Is i a fact that the HD LED does not work on a 9595A with a PassPlay
RaidAdp.?
The fixed disk light is non-functional with both the Server
95 A "Passplay" and Streaming-RAID "Cheetah" MCA RAID adapter. I
suspect this is also the case with other OEM'ed Mylex RAID adapters.

Cyrix/Non-SOD
Incompatibility?Tim ClarkeHi gang,
Just thought that I'd better warn you.
After checking out the Cyrix 5x86 at 4x clocking (in Type-1 non-SOD w/cache)
my PassPlay RAID adapter seems to have been "duffed up". I only get a part
of the BIOS v1.05 initialisation/installation message and the machine hangs
(with *any* CPU) at CP:96. Looks as though the Flash ROM has been partially
overwritten (just a guess).

IBM or Generic
SIMMs? They are 30-pin standard industrial ("generic") SIMMs.
Since the original concept allowed 4x1MB, 4x4MB and even 4 x 16MB cache
Simms they *must* be generic, because IBM only coded the 256K, 512K and
1MB modules. The 4MB and 16MB are not on IBM's list.

NOTE:All systems, except the 95-466,
95-560, 95 A-466, 95 A-560 and 9585-0Kx, require that the standard SCSI
adapter or system board resident SCSI controller remain connected to the
IML and/or boot hard file.
Saving
a Passplay Flashed With Cheetah MicrocodeFrom Peter During an IBM technical class after the introduction of
the Server 500 the instructor told us that you *could* accidently flash
a Passplay with the Cheetah firmware - and make it non-functional with
that.
He said: "You need a Cheetah adapter to flash back to
Passplay level. The Passplay with the Cheetah-firmware will refuse to re-flash.
Remove both - the Flash-ROM and the EEprom - and stuff it into a Cheetah
adapter. Then run the Passplay Flash diskette to reprogram it to level
1.6x (Ed.: or 1.99 actually). Then re-install the two chips on the Passplay
and it will work again."

Never tried it myself however.

Slots DAC960M
will Fit The Passplay is a Type 5 form factor card (it's big). There
are cutouts in 95 and 95A cases that will allow the edge of the card at
the bracket end to fit. Dennis Smith turned me on to them. Slots 2-4 have
these cutouts- The 95s don't have a cushion in them, 95As do.

More Than
One DAC960M?>An interesting note is that the 9595 has three enlarged slots to fit
in three passplay adapters. Or, I guess, to move the one passplay adapter
to the desired slot.

From Peter The machine has slotted rear wall in the positions 2,
3 and 4 that allowes installation of the oversized cards like Passplay.
Since there are limitations in the MCA "package dense" I would say the
positions are made to move cards around rather than installing 3 of them.
As far as I know the MCA cooling densing does not allow more than 2 cards
of that size to be installed - and even then the middle slot must stay
free to allow sufficient airflow between the cards.
But the Cheetah isn't an oversized card. It is a standard
full size 32-bit card - but it does not exceed the average card *height*
- and that's the most sensible criteria in a 95A box regarding airflow.
Not speaking of DC-load on a single MCA slot. That's another criteria that
might forbid using too many of the "Big" cards in a machine.
Not everything that *could* be installed is supported
- and not every amount of cards is a) practicable, b) supported and/or
c) works reliable. Even if the 400W PSU on the 95A might appear as a bottomless
pit (current-wise) the base planar and the slots have physical limits on
what current you can draw among it.

LVD on DAC960M>What kind of drives does the RAID take? Is F/W
DIFFERENTIAL SCSI the right kind? Or are LVD (low voltage differential)
different and it needs them instead? I've never dealt with RAID before.

From Peter It it an ordinary F/W indended for
single-ended SCSI devices. It does however take U/W LVD drives, because
these are downward-compatible to single-ended, which the old "high-voltage
differential" are *not*. If you get - for
example - a set of U/W "Low Voltage Differential" (LVD) IBM DDRS 4.5 or
9.1GB drives then they will nicely run with the DAC960M. I have some of
them in "Starship" - my Server 520 attached to the Fast/Wide RAID Adapter
PCI. No problem. You can even mix them with "ordinary" F/W or U/W drives.
Same for the Cheetah and even the older Passplay.

You need to install IBMRAID.SYS (in DOS directory of RAID
Diskette 1) even if and when the controller does fine under DOS. I installed
it
manually, although I presume that Uinstall.exe would do as well, however
after all the time I spent with the machine I wanted to have a manual
go at
it...
What no Readme (by IMB) tells you is hidden in the Mylex
DAC960 Readme: To work properly under Win9x, this driver must be installed
*before* any memory manager such as Himem.sys....
Did that, booted, and up came Win95 continuing the installation
procedure it broke off at the first "real" Windows start...

Transplanted the whole system (Raid cage w/3 drives, passplay) to the
9595-ALF (= EMEA version of -0LF).

The Fujitsu (set to SCSI 6 !!!) contains nothing but the
IML -- the rest is
formatted, no OS, nothing. The Passplay array still has DOS 7 and Win95
(basic installation w/o knickknack for the moment -- the installation completed
on the 95A after so many woes)...
And now comes the surprising part: Powered up the machine
-- and up came Win95 without a hitch. The Win95 I had installed on the
passplay RAID.

Here we are.
Contrary to what the first experiments showed, it *is* possible to
install
the Passplay on a 9595-xLx machine running Win95.
Prerequisites:
(1) Spock or similar with a HD of any size that contains the IML track.
(2) The appropriate driver sequence in config.sys:

Probably you could put the IBMRAID.SYS even before the DOS=HIGH statement,
but since it ain't borke I don#t want to fix it right now...

Mylex DAC960M
FirmwareThe Mylex Manufacturing Part ("D040") number
can be located on the back of the DAC960 controller, and uniquely identifies
the model and number of channels on the controller. It does not identify
the amount of memory installed, or the FW/BIOS versions, since these can
be updated.

When referring to this D040 number, please use
the entire number, since this will help Technical Support identify specific
features.

Mfg.No.
Mylex Model D040322
DAC960M D040325
DBX960M D040331
DAC960M-2

I have an older controller with version 2.xx FW, can I update the FW
to the 3.xx?
Not all boards will support the upgrade to 3.xx firmware.
If the controller has a revision number of D040347 or greater, the board
will support the upgrade. This revision label is usually found on the back
(non-component side of the board).

Data Parity Exception Handling Support Enable or disable the Micro Channel data parity generation
capability of this adapter ( M class and up). Does not show if system doesn't
support it.
<"Enabled ">, Disabled

INT 13 Support This provides limited support for BIOS INT 13 function
calls and is required if boot devices are connected to RAID Adapter.
If system is Flash, then <"Enabled
">, Disabled
else <"Disabled">, Enabled